9 Crazy Mysteries Solved On The Internet

9. Decoding A Dying Grandmother’s Final Writings

When Ask MetaFilter user JannaK posted her family’s mystery out for all to see, she certainly wasn’t expecting for the whole thing to be solved and explained in a matter of minutes - especially when prior to then her family had been pouring over it for twenty years!

The mystery in question was a code written by her grandmother just before she died of cancer, comprising twenty paper cards sprawled with seemingly nonsensical letter patterns. “My grandmother passed away in 1996 of a fast-spreading cancer. She was non-communicative her last two weeks, but in that time, she left at least 20 index cards with scribbled letters on them,” wrote JannaK, “We puzzled over them for a few months trying substitution ciphers, and didn't get anywhere.”

Within just fourteen minutes of posting pictures of the code cards online, JannaK had her answer: they were prayers.

Each letter stood for the first letter in a word in what would amount to different prayers or messages to god, for example: ‘OFWAIHHBTN’ is the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name’. It’s quite a simple ‘code’ when it comes down to it, but when trying to decipher the last thoughts of an elderly, unwell woman you can’t blame the family for not knowing where to start. Thanks to a little help from the internet, her family can now read her last prayers and messages decades later.